mobilize talent · hard-to-find skills

Murex, RACF and SAP IS-U engineers for the roles your recruiter couldn't fill.

Certain roles sit open for months. Only a few people have done the work on that platform, at that version. We fill those roles with certified engineers on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms, after a practitioner who has run the same platform screens them.

mobilize-talent / niche-technology-staffing 19 platforms
01 · PROFILE 02 · SCREEN 03 · DECIDE 04 · ENGAGE Open niche role: platform · module · version Open niche role platform · module ·version Delivery model: onsite · nearshore · offshore Delivery model onsite · nearshore ·offshore Candidate pool: certified · platform-specific Candidate pool certified ·platform-specific Practitioner interview: tasks from your estate Practitionerinterview tasks from your estate Short list: notes · rate · start date Short list notes · rate · startdate Your interview: hiring manager decides Your interview hiring manager decides Contract: upgrade · audit · backfill Contract upgrade · audit ·backfill Contract-to-hire: convert at agreed point Contract-to-hire convert at agreedpoint Permanent hire: your payroll Permanent hire your payroll
DelineaRSA SecurIDOne IdentityOracle Identity & Access Management
in short·20-second read

Some platforms have very few experienced engineers, and niche technology staffing fills roles on them.

Murex, Calypso, Guidewire and Epic are examples. So are IBM mainframe security on RACF, SAP IS-U, Oracle Utilities and OT/ICS security. Cohash places certified engineers onsite in the US or from nearshore and offshore teams, on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms. A practitioner on the same platform screens each candidate before you meet them.

you probably need this if
  • A Murex or Calypso role has been open for a quarter and every CV turns out to be general Java.
  • The one person who understands your RACF database is retiring next year.
  • Nobody on staff has done that upgrade before, and the vendor's end-of-support date won't move.
Ask an engineer facts checked 2026-10-20 · 3 sources
how it runs
  1. 01Profile the exact skill
  2. 02Practitioner screen
  3. 03Introduce and decide
  4. 04Onboard and check in
you keep
  • Skill profile naming platform, module, version and delivery model
  • Practitioner interview notes for each candidate introduced
  • Short list with rates or salary expectations and start dates
+ 2 more documents
the story · hard-to-find skills

From the first call to a setup your own team can run.

Here's what usually prompts a call about your Hard-to-Find Skills, what we do about it and in which order, and where you end up.

  1. chapter 01 · where it hurts

    Why teams reach out

    • A Murex or Calypso role has been open for a quarter and every CV turns out to be general Java.
    • The one person who understands your RACF database is retiring next year.
    • Nobody on staff has done that upgrade before, and the vendor's end-of-support date won't move.
  2. chapter 02 · what we change

    How we solve it

    • Identity platforms outside the usual three
    • Capital markets and insurance cores
    • SAP industry and logistics modules
    • Mainframe, utilities and industrial
    • Healthcare, HCM, ITSM and ERP specialists
    • Three ways to engage
  3. chapter 03 · how it runs

    Our approach

    • Profile the exact skill
    • Practitioner screen
    • Introduce and decide
    • Onboard and check in
  4. chapter 04 · where you end up

    What changes

    • By the retirement date the profile conventions are on paper.
    • Interviews stop on the first call for candidates who lack IS-U depth, and the project team gets billing configuration help it can put straight on the cutover plan.
    • Internal developers learn the cloud build and release process on their own codebase.
    • Skill profile naming platform, module, version and delivery model
what we do

Where we spend the hours

6 areas of work, each one done by an engineer who has run it in production.

  1. Delinea, including older Centrify deployments, RSA SecurID, One Identity, and Oracle Access Manager with OAAM. These estates are often a decade old, and the people who built them have moved on.

  2. Trading and risk people for Murex MX.3 and Calypso. Insurance people for Guidewire PolicyCenter, BillingCenter and ClaimCenter and for Duck Creek Policy and Claims. Configuration developers, integration engineers and upgrade leads.

  3. SAP IS-U and BRIM with FI-CA for utility and subscription billing, and SAP EWM and TM for warehouses and transport. These modules have their own data models. General S/4HANA experience won't get someone through them.

  4. z/OS systems programmers and RACF administrators, Oracle Utilities billing developers, AVEVA PI System engineers, Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill PLM developers, and OT/ICS security engineers who know control networks.

  5. Epic application analysts and integration staff, Workday Extend developers, ServiceNow ITOM engineers for Discovery and Service Mapping, and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations X++ developers.

  6. If it's a fixed window, such as an upgrade or audit, go contract. If you'd like to see someone's work before committing, contract-to-hire. If the role belongs on your payroll, a permanent search. Either way the terms are agreed before we start looking.

capability 01 / 06in production

Identity platforms outside the usual three

Delinea, including older Centrify deployments, RSA SecurID, One Identity, and Oracle Access Manager with OAAM. These estates are often a decade old, and the people who built them have moved on.

capability 02 / 06in production

Capital markets and insurance cores

Trading and risk people for Murex MX.3 and Calypso. Insurance people for Guidewire PolicyCenter, BillingCenter and ClaimCenter and for Duck Creek Policy and Claims. Configuration developers, integration engineers and upgrade leads.

capability 03 / 06in production

SAP industry and logistics modules

SAP IS-U and BRIM with FI-CA for utility and subscription billing, and SAP EWM and TM for warehouses and transport. These modules have their own data models. General S/4HANA experience won't get someone through them.

capability 04 / 06in production

Mainframe, utilities and industrial

z/OS systems programmers and RACF administrators, Oracle Utilities billing developers, AVEVA PI System engineers, Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill PLM developers, and OT/ICS security engineers who know control networks.

capability 05 / 06in production

Healthcare, HCM, ITSM and ERP specialists

Epic application analysts and integration staff, Workday Extend developers, ServiceNow ITOM engineers for Discovery and Service Mapping, and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations X++ developers.

capability 06 / 06in production

Three ways to engage

If it's a fixed window, such as an upgrade or audit, go contract. If you'd like to see someone's work before committing, contract-to-hire. If the role belongs on your payroll, a permanent search. Either way the terms are agreed before we start looking.

typical situations

Situations we walk into

We pieced these together from Hard-to-Find Skills situations that come up a lot. They're patterns. You won't find a specific client in them.

case file 01

One RACF administrator, a retirement date and no documented profile design

composite · not a client story
  1. Beforethe situation

    A single administrator maintains RACF for several LPARs. Dataset profiles and group structures grew over decades, there is little written down, and the administrator retires in nine months.

  2. What we dothe work

    Place a contract RACF engineer to shadow the administrator first, writing up group, dataset and general resource profile conventions as they go. Then start a contract-to-hire search for the permanent backfill, screened against those same write-ups.

  3. Afterwhere you end up

    By the retirement date the profile conventions are on paper. And the permanent hire is interviewed against your actual RACF estate, not some generic mainframe checklist.

case file 02

SAP IS-U billing role open for months, filled with S/4HANA generalists

composite · not a client story
  1. Beforethe situation

    A utility is moving IS-U billing to S/4HANA Utilities. Recruiters keep sending FI and SD consultants who have never configured billing schemas, rate structures or device management.

  2. What we dothe work

    Rewrite the profile around the IS-U objects in scope, such as rate categories, billing schemas and FI-CA contract accounts. Screen candidates by having them trace a meter read to a posted bill, then introduce contract engineers who pass.

  3. Afterwhere you end up

    Interviews stop on the first call for candidates who lack IS-U depth, and the project team gets billing configuration help it can put straight on the cutover plan.

case file 03

Guidewire Cloud move with an in-house team that knows only on-premises PolicyCenter

composite · not a client story
  1. Beforethe situation

    The internal team runs an older on-premises PolicyCenter with heavy Gosu customization. A move to Guidewire Cloud is approved, and nobody internally has worked on the cloud delivery model.

  2. What we dothe work

    Staff two contract engineers who have done Guidewire Cloud work alongside the internal developers, and pair them on the first integration rebuild. Keep one role contract-to-hire for a permanent platform lead.

  3. Afterwhere you end up

    Internal developers learn the cloud build and release process on their own codebase. The platform lead role goes to someone the team has already worked with.

case studies

Hard-to-Find Skills case studies

All case studies
architecture

How a hard-to-find role gets filled

Profile the role down to the platform, module and version. Have practitioners screen candidates on real tasks. Choose from the short list. The engineer then starts on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms, in whichever delivery model you picked.

How a hard-to-find role gets filled Profile the role down to the platform, module and version. Have practitioners screen candidates on real tasks. Choose from the short list. The engineer then starts on contract, contract-to-hire or permanent terms, in whichever delivery model you picked. 01 · PROFILE 02 · SCREEN 03 · DECIDE 04 · ENGAGE search location and hours screen written notes introduce choose choose choose convert Open niche role platform · module ·version Delivery model onsite · nearshore ·offshore Candidate pool certified ·platform-specific Practitioner interview tasks from your estate Short list notes · rate · start date Your interview hiring manager decides Contract upgrade · audit · backfill Contract-to-hire convert at agreed point Permanent hire your payroll
Read the diagram as text
  1. Open niche role → Candidate pool: search
  2. Delivery model → Candidate pool: location and hours
  3. Candidate pool → Practitioner interview: screen
  4. Practitioner interview → Short list: written notes
  5. Short list → Your interview: introduce
  6. Your interview → Contract: choose
  7. Your interview → Contract-to-hire: choose
  8. Your interview → Permanent hire: choose
  9. Contract-to-hire → Permanent hire: convert
how it runs

A typical engagement

We don't start a step until the last one has produced something you can check.

  1. step 01

    Profile the exact skill

    Platform, module, version and the work itself. A Murex role for MX.3 datamart reporting is a different search from one for trade workflow configuration, so we pin that down first.

  2. step 02

    Practitioner screen

    A Cohash engineer who has worked on the platform interviews each candidate on real tasks from your environment, and writes up what they found.

  3. step 03

    Introduce and decide

    The short list comes with interview notes, rate or salary, availability and delivery model. You do the interviews and make the choice.

  4. step 04

    Onboard and check in

    Access through your process, a first-week plan with the hiring manager, and scheduled check-ins with a Cohash contact for the length of the engagement.

you keep

What you're left with

We write these for your Hard-to-Find Skills setup, and they're working documents. Your team should be able to keep things running from them long after we've gone.

  • design01

    Skill profile naming platform, module, version and delivery model

    yours to keep
  • document02

    Practitioner interview notes for each candidate introduced

    yours to keep
  • document03

    Short list with rates or salary expectations and start dates

    yours to keep
  • document04

    Onboarding checklist agreed with the hiring manager

    yours to keep
  • document05

    Check-in summaries during contract and contract-to-hire terms

    yours to keep
talent and delivery · hard-to-find skills

Certified engineers, wherever you need them.

Some clients want a project team, some want a couple of engineers on theirs. Either works. Onsite, nearshore or offshore, with handovers across time zones that keep things moving.

Onsite

Engineers at your sites in the US

Nearshore

Overlapping hours with US teams

Offshore

Overnight progress on your backlog

All time zones

Coverage handed over across time zones

24-hour coverage · US Central time
OnsiteUS business hours
Nearshoreoverlapping US hours
Offshoreovernight progress
Combinedhandover, not hand-off
01Which platforms do you staff?

In identity, Delinea and Centrify, RSA SecurID, One Identity, Oracle OAM and OAAM. IBM mainframe with RACF. For trading and insurance, Murex, Calypso, Guidewire and Duck Creek. On the SAP side BRIM and FI-CA, EWM and TM, and IS-U, plus Oracle Utilities. Also Workday Extend, ServiceNow ITOM, Epic, OT/ICS security, Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, and AVEVA PI. If yours is missing, ask anyway.

02How long does it take to fill a niche role?

It depends on the platform, the version, whether the role is remote and the delivery model. A remote contract role on a well-known module fills faster than an onsite permanent role that needs a rare version. We tell you what the pool looks like after the first week of search, before you commit to a timeline.

03Why do these roles cost more than general developer roles?

Supply is small and the work is usually tied to a deadline, like a Guidewire Cloud move or a vendor end-of-support date. Rates depend mainly on the platform, seniority, onsite days and engagement length. We quote per role once the profile is agreed.

04How do you check a candidate actually knows Murex or RACF?

A practitioner interview with tasks from the real work. For RACF that might mean reading a set of profiles and explaining who can access a dataset. For Murex, walking through how a trade flows to the datamart. CVs in these areas often list the platform without the depth.

05Is specialist tech talent really harder to find right now?

Published surveys say so. Robert Half reports that 65% of US technology hiring managers find skilled talent more challenging to find than a year ago. In Kyndryl's 2025 survey, 70% of organizations said they struggle to find the multi-skilled talent mainframe modernization needs. A DSCI and SANS report found 73% of Indian enterprises see limited availability of skilled cyber security candidates.

06Can we start on contract and convert later?

Yes. We write the contract-to-hire terms into the contract, conversion point and any fee included, before the engineer's first day.

07Do you also staff a whole team for a project?

Yes. Sometimes you need someone accountable for the result, say a Guidewire upgrade or an OT network segmentation program. Then our consulting practice scopes it as a project instead of placing individuals.

next step

Tell us what you're running. We'll tell you what we'd do first.

A 30-minute working session with a senior engineer. No slides.

useful to bring
  • The platform and the version you're on
  • Where you need to get to, and by when
  • What's custom: rules, plugins, integrations
  • Any audit finding or deadline driving it